Good morning, and we’re
joined here today by Senator Charles Schumer and Council Speaker
Christine Quinn, and our key City commissioners. And I wanted to
once again thank Linda Calise for her signing.

Let me begin today by
updating everyone on the current weather conditions and what we can
expect from Hurricane Sandy over the next two days. We continue to
remain in touch with Governor Cuomo and State officials in
coordinating our response to this storm. I also am announcing right
now that we have ordered city public schools to remain closed
tomorrow. There’s no chance that mass transit will be back in time
to serve people, and always worried about cleanup even though the
storm should abate dramatically as we get into Tuesday.

The current track
provided by the National Hurricane Center shows Sandy making
landfall just south of Atlantic City this evening. That keeps New
York City well within the danger zone of this storm, and it’s why,
as of now, we are under a coastal flood warning from now through 3
pm on Tuesday and high-wind warning through 6 pm tomorrow.

This is a massive storm;
hurricane-force winds extend some 175 miles in every direction of
the center. The storm may strengthen as it meets the cold front
approaching from the northwest, and that’s when it changes from a
tropical storm to a nor’easter, which has very big implications for
those areas to the west of us and to the north of us.

As we’ve emphasized all
along, the greatest danger posed by Sandy is the coastal storm surge
it will produce. We’ve already had as much flooding, for example,
along the FDR which is fundamentally closed at the moment, as we did
in Hurricane Irene.

Now when we close a
road, we close it when the water comes up, and if the water recedes,
for example as you go from a high-tide to a low-tide period, we
would reopen that. But at any moment any of these roads, if it
becomes unsafe we close it, and we have lots of people watching.

The flooding that could
occur later today is why we ordered our evacuation from Zone A areas
yesterday. Last night there was a high-tide, tonight there’s a much
bigger one, tomorrow another one

Water levels along our
coast and in our waterways have begun rising and are expected to
remain at higher-than-normal levels for the next 24 hours. The surge
will be roughly at 8 o’clock tonight, 8:15, plus or minus a couple
of hours. But remember, if you are in the South Bronx, the surge
that you’re getting is surge that enters Long Island Sound from out
around Montauk, and it takes about four hours to get down here. So
the surge that you would experience there is much later than the
surge that you’d experience if the water is coming up the East River
and the Hudson River.

There has already been
some flooding already in the Battery, as well as the FDR and some of
the Rockaways. We expect surge levels of 6 to 11 feet. A surge of 9
to 10 feet is possible along Coney Island and the Rockaways. And a
surge of 11 to 12 feet may occur at the Battery Monday evening.
Maximum surge impact in these areas expected to be at some period
plus or minus two hours around 8:15, so say 6 to 10:30. The peak
surge will hit areas along Long Island Sound between 10 and 2 am, as
I said four hours later.

Now, if you live on a
coastline you have to add to that breaking waves, waves of 15 to 20
feet along the ocean facing shoreline will result is severe beach
erosion, but also it drives some water right over the roads and
inland more.

Because of the heavy
rains that we do expect, which will come in later tonight, after-
first we’ll see higher winds, then we’ll see the surge, then we’ll
see more rain. Tomorrow morning we expect to be very wet.

A high wind warning is
now in effect. The heaviest winds will occur this afternoon, this
evening. Sustained winds of 40 to 55 miles an hour with gusts of 70
to 80 are what’s forecast at the moment.

Motorists should
exercise extreme caution. We will monitor conditions on the bridges.
Governor Cuomo has announced that at 2 pm today, the Hugh Carey
Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel and Holland Tunnel will be closed to
traffic.

The Bronx River Parkway
and the westbound lanes of the Goethals Bridge have been closed. And
more bridge and tunnel closings throughout the city are very
possible.

Yesterday, I ordered an
evacuation of residents and businesses in the areas designated as
Zone A in our Coastal Flood Plan. So let me reiterate what I said
yesterday just for everybody’s safety, and it’s also for the safety
of the city’s first responders who might have to rescue people who
remain in Zone A, and whose own lives could be put at risk because
of that.

If you are still in Zone
A and can find a way to leave, leave immediately. Conditions are
deteriorating very rapidly, and the window for you getting out
safely is closing.

As the winds start
building this afternoon, it gets more and more dangerous to go
outside. And so you’re sort of caught between a rock and a hard
place. You should have left, but it’s also getting to be too late to
leave. If you really experience an emergency, 911. We will send our
first responders in, although we’d love very much not to have to put
their lives at risk, and you can control that by getting out now.

You can look outside and
say, ‘Oh, this is not bad.’ That’s correct, but it is going to be.
Forecasts are reasonably accurate this close to when we’re
predicting something and it’s going to be very high winds, going to
be a lot of road closures. You know mass transit’s not working, and
driving when you have big gusts like that is dangerous.

Overnight, City EMS
crews transported 13 homebound elderly from Zone A residences. Plans
were also put in effect to transport residents of City homeless
shelters in Zone A. And an increased effort is being made to reach
homeless on the streets with a focus on those in Zone A. Manhattan
Veterans Affairs Hospital and New York Downtown Hospital have been
fully evacuated, incidentally.

Some 45,000 of the
375,000 New Yorkers who live in Zone A are residents of city public
housing developments. We continue to make enormous efforts to reach
them with the message that they need to leave for their own safety.
If you are in one of these 26 affected developments, the City is
running buses for the next hour or so but that’s going to stop
because it just becomes too dangerous to run the buses.

If you are still in a
public housing development, you should go downstairs. The buses are
in the same locations that they were yesterday.

“We placed flyers in all
26 of the affected developments starting last Friday. We had
meetings with residents last Saturday. We started knocking on doors
of residents in the affected developments Friday and Saturday. That
continued yesterday. We have knocked on every door in the affected
developments. We made phone calls to apartments in every
development. If we couldn’t reach people, we put flyers under their
doors.

Sunday, police officers
were at the developments telling people through loudspeakers to
evacuate. We provided school buses to transport people to shelters,
and that is still going on. We’re especially going to residents we
know are on respirators, or other life-saving equipment dependent on
electricity, and telling them to leave and helping them do so.

“I did want to commend
the elected officials who worked with NYCHA this weekend in going
door-to-door with the message to evacuate, particularly to John Rhea
and all this staff at NYCHA. I don’t think anybody could have done
more to give people the notice and advice how to protect themselves.

We’ve stressed all along
that for people living in Zone A, the first option should be finding
a safe place to stay with relatives or friends. However, we have
also opened 76 emergency shelters in City public schools for those
who did not have that option. They are still accepting people. All
of these shelters have at least one entrance usable for wheelchairs.

“If you require further
information, you can call 311 or visit the OEM website through
nyc.gov, or the website of the Mayor’s Office for People with
Disabilities, which will provide information about accessibility.

We have done everything
I think that we can to give you the information that you need. The
shelters are fully stocked. We’ve got volunteers, a lot of teachers
who have been there overnight. I visited one yesterday, they have
shelter. They have cots, they have blankets, they have food, they
have sanitary facilities, and they can even take your pets.

“So far we’ve had about
3,000 people come into the shelters and if the press wants to know
the number of pets, I think it was in the low 70s – 73 pets. But
don’t leave your pet at home because you don’t know when you can get
back. So take your pet with you.

For the past several
days, we’ve been stressing what precautionary steps New Yorkers
should take. Our message to all New Yorkers is pretty much the same
today: the storm is here, and will be here the rest of today and
well into tomorrow. Now you should concentrate on keeping yourselves
and your families safe.

To the extent possible,
remain in your homes while this storm is in progress. If you live in
buildings served by elevators, avoid using them during the storm.
There’s always the possibility of power outages, and you might get
caught between floors.

Stay away from picture
windows or lobbies where glass could be shattered by wind-borne
objects. Most of the glass is able to stand up to the gusts, but if
something is blown into them then they could easily shatter and you
could be hit with the glass or the object that caused the accident
in the beginning.

We have worked very hard
to make sure all cranes and construction sites are battered down,
and we’ve had so far no indication of any debris blowing off a
construction site. But as the winds get worse, our precautions get
tested more, and you never know. There’s no reason to jeopardize
your lives. It’s just dangerous to be out on the streets when the
wind is this high. If you have to be, you can do it, but take
precautions. You just- stay away from windows when you’re inside,
outside keep your eyes and ears open. Get your business done and get
back insider as quickly as you can. And remember that on the high
floors of high-rise buildings, the wind is much stronger, so the
further up you live, the more reason you should close your drapes
and just stay away from windows.

With regard to City
employees: As I have said, City government is open for business
today. That’s what we’re here to do, to serve New Yorkers. When
others need help, we’ve got to be there. To all City workers with
operational duties related to Hurricane Sandy: You know what your
assignments are and you should be executing them and thank you for
your dedication. That’s why you go to work for New York City, to
help others. We’ve asked a number of City school teachers to
volunteer at the evacuation centers.

However, conditions are
dangerous and in light of the predicted impact of the storm to
people’s ability to get home tonight, I have instructed
commissioners that they are to use their judgment to determine if
employees not involved in response or shelter operations and have
gotten done the stuff that had to get done today, then there’s no
reason why you can’t- Commissioners can make their own decisions,
but they could send them- let them leave work early to get home.

But let me be clear:
City government is open and these are the times when New Yorkers
need us the most. We do want to have everyone to safe and not
inconvenience anybody more than necessary. But we understand why
we’re here.

To give you some
examples of what City workers are doing today: Sanitation workers
have already picked up thousands of tons of refuse this morning.
They will be on 12-hour shifts tomorrow to pick up refuse where
possible and also to help removing debris created by the storms.

Employees with the
Department of Environmental Protection are cleaning catch basins and
staffing wastewater treatment plants, dealing with instances of
highway flooding, and repairing water main breaks.

The City Human Resources
Administration has opened all its facilities located outside Zone A.

All public hospital
emergency rooms are open and will remain open throughout the storm.

But also remember some
things have been sensibly closed. City school-based afterschool
programs are closed. Senior centers are closed. Public libraries are
closed.

All City parks have been
closed since 5 pm and will remain closed until further notice. For
your safety, now that we are experiencing dangerous winds, please
stay out of the parks.

Broadway is closed
tonight. If you wanted to go out, it’s probably- restaurants want
the business and movie theaters and everybody else, but just
remember it is dangerous out there and it may be a good time to just
stay hunkered in to your home and have a sandwich out of the fridge
and sit back and watch television.

We have an effective
plan in place we think, and if we follow it and all exercise common
sense we’re going to get through this storm just fine.

So now let me say number
thank you to Chuck Schumer for the help that the Federal government
gives us. I was on a conference call with the President yesterday,
and he had a bunch of Governors and Mayors, offering any help that
he could give us. Craig Fugate from FEMA the day before. And the
Governor’s Office and my office have talked today. I’ve talked to
the Governor a number of times during this. Everybody’s helping
everybody and working together, and that’s the way it should be.